Date set for challenge to New Tyne Crossing decision

The Legal Challenge to the Government’s decision to approve the New Tyne Crossing will be heard in the High Court in London on April 5, 2006.

The Challenge is being brought by a member of the public, Mr Brian Atkinson.

Councillor Tom Hanson, deputy chairman of the Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Authority (TWPTA) which is sponsoring the New Tyne Crossing, said: “The challenge was made on August 30, 2005 and it has taken longer than expected to get a date for the hearing. We are delighted that a date has now been set.

“Whatever the outcome of the Legal Challenge, the New Tyne Crossing will be built. It is vital to the economic prospects of Tyne and Wear.”

It is expected that the hearing will last a matter of days. A judgement will then be delivered by mid-May.

Ends

Issued on behalf of the New Tyne Crossing by Bradley O’Mahoney Public Relations. Media contact: Paul Fenwick, Project Director, New Tyne Crossing on 0191 211 6058 or Richard Simpson on 07821 537106 or Felicity Amer on 0191 281 8833.

Notes to editors:

1.On July 21 2005, the Secretary of State for Transport approved the application by the Tyne and Wear Transport Authority (TWPTA) to go ahead with the planning and construction of the New Tyne Crossing following a Public Inquiry in 2003.
2.The decision was subject to any Legal Challenges in the subsequent six weeks.
3.A Legal Challenge was made in August 30 2005 by Brian Atkinson, a resident of South Tyneside.
4.Mr Atkinson was a representative of Friends of the Earth at the Public Inquiry in 2003, but has made his Legal Challenge as an individual. Friends of the Earth are not making a Legal Challenge.
5.The Legal Challenge is against the decision of the Secretary of State. This means that the Secretary of State for Transport will be the defendant when the case comes to the High Court. The Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Authority, is cited as an interested party and will be involved in that capacity to support the defence.
6.The basis of the Legal Challenge is that the Secretary of State has ‘erred in law’ in reaching his decision. The TWPTA is not allowed, for legal reasons, to comment further until the case has been heard.
7.TWPTA is confident that the Challenge will be successfully defended and that the scheme will proceed.
8.The New Tyne Crossing was originally a Public Private Partnership with a Concessionaire appointed to finance, design and construct the new tunnel and to operate all the tunnels under the Tyne. On October 21 2005 the TWPTA agreed to consider the possibility of using prudential borrowing to cover half the cost of the scheme. This would enable tolls to be kept lower than would otherwise be the case.
9.The New Tyne Crossing will be an immersed tube tunnel between East Howdon (North Tyneside) and Jarrow (South Tyneside). It will complete the dualling of the A19 which runs from south of Cramlington, Northumberland, to North Yorkshire.